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[Guide] Gragas: Riding the Fatty to Victory for Beginners!

The date of (the start) writing this guide is 03/11/10 and the current patch is v1.0.0.75. In this patch Gragas received massive buffs to just about everything and has now become a viable and powerful character. If you are reading this, you have a Fatty Rider's heart and with the training you receive you shall become a card-carrying Fatty Rider. This is a guide for a tanking oriented Gragas, I'm sure there will be some AP builds floating around, if you're looking for one of those then you do not belong in Fatty Rider training.

If you're up for some more reading and have an interest in improving as a player overall I recommend reading this (https://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=71443) thread written by condon.

II. Before You Mount Up.... (The Pregame)

A. Summoner Spells

As per usual in my guides I recommend Teleport for playing the Fatty. Like most others, the Fatty Rider enjoys being able to make a quick exit or entrance from a given area, this widely opens up your options during the game and can easily turn the tide of a push either to take or to defend a turret.

For your other choice, you really have some options here. I prefer Ghost or Flash simply for the options they give you in either escape or attack. Note that your E ability already allows you to hop fairly large walls so I go with Ghost.

Ignite and Exhaust are both viable options and Cleanse could be used as well, this second choice really comes down to preference.

I prefer this build for maximum survivability and the extra SpellPen/CDR from the Offense tree. 9 points in Utility just isn't as good as 9 points in Offense, if you want to go 21 in Utility instead of Defense however that's a fair choice.

C. Runes

I choose not to go too indepth here as most people have personal rune preference choices, but I'll spell out what I use in case you're clueless on how to rune a Fatty Rider.

One way to remember it is to memorize the first 4 levels, then always level up your Q unless a rank of ultimate is available and if you can't get Q or R get E until all you have left to get is W.

B. Skill Explanations

Barrel Roll (Q)
Gragas rolls his cask to a location, which can be activated again to explode or will explode on its own after 5 seconds, dealing 100/150/200/250/300 (+0.8 per Ability Power) magic damage in the area.Cooldown:12/11/10/9/8 seconds

Your Q is your bread and butter for harassing in the lane phase of the game and carries into the mid-game as a solid nuke against enemy champions. It loses some of its punch end-game, but you can spam it pretty quickly with some CDR. This should always be on cooldown in end-game team battles.

The trick with your barrel is to anticipate your opponents. Most people tend to flee straight back when they see a barre coming, try targeting a spot right behind them and watch them run right into the barrels targeted area as they attempt to flea, cue your evil cackles as you explode it on their face.

This is a possibly a glitch, but for the moment your barrel roll actually triggers Teemo Mushrooms and Shaco boxes, use this to your advantage to clear them out safely and collect free gold from Shaco's pesky traps.

Drunken Rage (W)Cooldown:30 seconds
Gragas guzzles down brew from his cask, channeling for 1 second. He gains 50/60/70/80/90 mana while channeling and becomes empowered after finishing, increasing physical attack damage by 30/40/50/60/70, and reducing damage taken by 10/14/18/22/26% for 20 seconds.

The best part of this spell is it's free, costs you absolutely nothing. Free beer forever, this is the joy of the Fatty Rider.

The biggest advice I can give you concerning this skill is to ALWAYS USE IT. It heals you and gives mana back for absolutely no cost. You NEED this mana early on in the game, use this every cooldown to collect free blue Fatty power. Its other uses are straight-forward, reduced damage taken and increased damage dealt, pop it before or during team battles, especially if you find yourself focused. Just remember it has a 1s channel to activate so weigh the benefits carefully in a frenzied battle.

Body Slam (E)Cooldown:6 seconds
Gragas charges forward, colliding with the first enemy unit he hits and dealing 80/120/160/200/240 plus 66% of his physical damage to enemies in the area. Damage is split amongst targets hit. Units hit by Body Slam are slowed by 35% for 2.5 seconds.

Ahh the Fatty Charge, on an even shorter cooldown then your barrel this is easily your most spammable ability. This ability is great, it speeds you towards or away from enemies, slows people you hit, hops walls, what more could a Fatty Rider need? Use it to make quick entries or quicker escapes. I've escaped 4 people chasing me with a Sivir ult using this skill properly, with practice you can too.

Once again I recommend keeping it on CD for team-battles once you have the mana. The key to Gragas is using all your moves over and over, nothing should remain off CD in battle (except your ultimate or your W) for more than 2s. You have short CDs, USE THEM!

Explosive Cask (R)Cooldown:60 seconds
Gragas throws his cask to an area. Upon landing, it deals 200/325/450 (+1.0 per Ability Power) magic damage to all units struck, knocking them back and applying a 20/30/40% attack speed debuff.

The most powerful weapon in the Fatty Rider's arsenal? The power... to move you. This ability is fantastic, it's a bit tricky to master but once you have oh boy oh boy. The key is knowing how and when to move your opponents. You can push people into and out of turrets, away from their friends, towards your friends, or all of these things in different combinations!

Note that it doesn't push people over walls, but it does grind them against it if you have a proper angle, effectively immobilizing them for a couple of seconds. It's also great at throwing an enemy team into disarray by scattering them all over. Feel free to use it frequently, it has a short CD (do you see the pattern here?) for an ultimate ability and is just plain fun.

Your cask actually has great synergy with roots or stuns as it allows you to pretty much place opponent(s) anywhere you want them to be since they can't move and you get to line up a perfect shot with it.

Your passive, it sounds okay at first, but it takes some time playing Gragas to realize the true joy of this. We promote this ability with synergistic items later in this guide and this ability makes you much much MUCH harder to kill as well as keeping you topped off all the time (because you're spamming abilities almost constantly remember? Or drinking your free beer? DON'T FORGET TO DO THIS!!)

IV. The Tools of the Trade

A Fatty Rider does not simply go out to ride bare-fisted, he needs his tools and that's what we are about to discuss. To ride Fatties, one needs to be alive so let's focus on how to make you hard to kill. Wait, hold that thought. I forgot the most important part of Fatty Riding, your blue Fatty Power. When other people discovered they could use our power for other things they called it 'mana,' we will continue to call it Fatty Power as is proper.

2nd Trip Back: Either buy another Catalyst straight-up or finish either Mercury Treads or Ninja Tabi then purchase another Sapphire Crystal. (Or get Catalyst and finish your boots if you can afford both.)

3rd Trip Back: Finish your boots if you didn't, then turn your first Catalyst into an Innervating Locket. This item has great synergy with your cheap, spammable abilities and your passive. At this point you should be able to farm in the field as long as you like, unless you get mixed up in a team-battle and have to heal for fear of death you should be able to heal yourself back to decent amounts of HP just by farming with your Q and using W.

4th Trip Back: You want to complete a Spirit Visage, you might not do it in one trip, but keep plugging until you get it. This makes your passive and Innervating Locket even better.

5th Trip Back: Turn your other Catalyst into a Banshee's Veil, this is a powerful item and it's good in pretty much any game for a host of reasons. Congratulations, you've finished your core.

Xth Trip Back: You'll now have two slots open in your inventory. Enemy team composition will determine how you fill them. Take 10s or so looking at the scoreboard and think about what's hurting you out in the field, then find the solution.

A Fatty Rider uses the buddy system, you should be looking for a lane mate that can eat up the low health champions you will present to them on a silver platter. While you can probably take mid, you should have a character that's far more suited to it on your team. If you can't find someone like this among your team at champion select you might consider crying, begging, pleading, and cajoling to have someone pick a Champion who can.

A. The Lane Phase

Toss barrels often. Your first rank does ~80 damage to heroes and this is devastating at level 1. You can easily pick up first bloods against careless opponents. Even if you don't, you can force them to go back to heal early giving you an experience and gold advantage over them.

You'll blow through the first part of your Fatty Power bar fairly quickly, don't worry. When you hit half chug your potion, soon the free beer will be filling you off. If you hit all your barrels the enemy will soon be playing defensively which is what you want. Bomb them in turret, it's generally easy to predict how they will move after a couple tries. Chug your free beer every time it's up, preferably somewhere safe if they have skillshots or other ranged skills.

Once you hit 4, feel free to charge into enemy heroes, you'll be surprised the ganking opportunities you can create by a simple E to Q combo. Also don't be too afraid of their turret, you can dive people down fairly well, but I would wait till you have boots and Catalyst for that unless you think one charge will get them or your lane partner is willing to follow you into hell and come out with a kill.

B. Mid-game

You should be well established as a force in your lane now, and you can feel free to roam a bit. Collect a golem buff and dragon is fairly easy to solo given how much damage and healing you put out. Set up ganks and clear lanes like a boss. Use teleport to defend your own turret as needed.

Another strategy is to let your lane mate roam for ganks, you'll have a fairly easy time holding off what are probably 2 underleveled, underfarmed players. Even if they aren't you won't have much trouble holding them off alone.

C. Late game

You are the Fatty Rider, you are king of this god **** game and the enemy should know it. Initiate team battles by either rushing in or splitting foes up with your ultimate. Focus on enemy DPS killing or forcing them to withdraw early, setting up a bunch of kills as the enemy flees in terror. SPAM your ****. You'll be healing yourself and your team with every cast, keep it up!

Team push like champions and get that turret gold and inhibitors. Your fate will be decided mostly by your ability to wipe an enemy team. DON'T LET RUNNERS GO! You are going to be the fastest Fatty Rider alive with your E ability and you shouldn't let those Fatties get away unridden. Be wary of counter ganks, but don't be afraid, you can and will demolish fleeing players with ease.

I'll repeat a paragraph from my last guide here, it is probably the best advice on end-game situations that I can give you.

Quote:

&quot:

Play smart and you'll come out of end-game on top. Terrible choices lose people games at this stage and going to get that Golem all by yourself when they're missing can cost you a lot. The respawn times are anywhere from 50-70 something seconds and dying for something minor is NOT worth the risk.

VI. Credits/Closing Remarks

I'd like to thank the devs first for buffing Gragas to the point he is playable, yelling about riding Fatties and being the Fatty Rider have been incredibly satisfying for me. I'd also like to credit Leaguecraft for having the tooltips I used (though they didn't have cost or range posted).

Welcome to the life of a Fatty Rider, I hope you have great success in your endeavors and that you enjoyed the guide. You can pick up your Fatty Rider Membership Card on the way ouy.

This is my second guide, my first being BOOM HEADSHOT! (http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=42110), a Tristana guide, and if you liked this one you can check that one out as well. I apologize the items aren't updated (as of 03/12/10 anyways) to the current patch, I've adjusted the build and updating the guide is on my to do list.

I'm always looking for feedback and discussion in this thread, so if you have another way to ride the Fatty or have comments/critique of my build please feel free to post it.

+1 for humor. Looks like Condon's rubbing off on the guides section. Hardly a bad thing.

As for effectiveness, I'll be trying this build shortly (No Ezreal=bored). Will post success rate.

EDIT: Just finished first game with it. Did pretty well. 2 kills, 2 deaths. 4 assists (one of those deaths was because my cat unplugged my mouse >:| ), 3 buildings destroyed (Though I had a hand in pushing just about all of the buildings). I'm still wary of using Gragas in real competitive matches....but for solo Queue at least, quite effective. Thumbs up.

Possible
The ring with all the AP, can't remember the name, but only if you have high stacks with Mejai's
Banshee's Veil if lots of casters
Phantom Dancer
Frozen Heart if lots of physical damage on other team